Electrical connecting lug

ABSTRACT

A connector lug for electrical wires, the lug having an extruded body, a hole through the body in the extrusion direction, a rib extending in the extruded direction, and an elongated tang mounted on said rib and projecting from said body in the extrusion direction.

United States Patent Middendorf et al. [4 1 Jan. 25, 1972 154] ELECTRICAL CONNECTING LUG 1,077,746 11/1913 Peterson ..339/220 R Inventors: William H. Middendorf Fort Mitchell; 3,228,094 1/1966 Stanback et al ..339/272 R Ralph Myers, covmswn; Edward FOREIGN PATENTS 0R APPLICATIONS Fritz, Florence; Jack N. Koch, Melbourne, all of Ky. 218,483 1/1958 Australia ..339/220 R 235,388 4/1960 Australia... .....339/272 UC Asslgnw The Wadsworth Electric fl- Covmg- 622,371 5/1949 Great Britain ..339/272 R ton, Ky. I [22] pned: No 12' 1969 Primary Examiner-.loseph H. McGlynn Attorney-Wood, Herron & Evans [21] Appl. No.: 875,926

[57] ABSTRACT [52] US. Cl U, N, A connector lug for electrical wires, the lug having an ex. Cl truded body, a hole through the body in the extrusion Fivld Search direction, a rib extending in the extruded direction, and an 4/ 1 elongated tang mounted on said rib and projecting from said body in the extrusion direction. [56] References Cited 4 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures ELECTRICAL CONNECTING LUG This invention relates to an electrical connector and, more particularly, the invention relates to a connector having a tang for attachment to a bus bar or the like and a body secured to one end of the tang, the body having a hole therethrough extending longitudinally in the direction of the tang and adapted to receive an electrical wire.

In the past, connector lugs of the type to which the present invention relates have been either an integral cast body and tang, or have been an extruded integral body and tang. The cast lug has been expensive and too weak to be completely satisfactory. In the extruded form, elongated stock of a generally L shape has been extruded in a direction transverse to the projecting tang. Because of the requirement of extruding transverse to the direction of the tang, the body portion must be drilled in two directions to form a wire hole extending in the direction of the tang and to form a hole which is tapped to receive a screw to clamp a wire in the wire hole. The two disadvantages to this form are, first, the requirement of drilling two holes, and second, the wire hole must necessarily be round unless an expensive machining operation is performed to provide a more desirable irregular shape.

In the past, connectors of this type have also been made by extruding stock, forming an irregularly shaped hole in the direction of the extrusion and cutting the stock into short body-forming lengths. These bodies have been secured to a tang by means of a bolt and lock washer.

It has been an objective of the invention to provide a tang connector whose body is extruded and has a hole formed by the extrusion process and is hence capable of having diverse shapes to accommodate various sizes of wires, the body being secured to a tang by means other than a bolt and lock washer.

It has been a further objective of the invention, in an extruded connector, to provide a large wire hole which is adapted to receive a large wire, but to provide that hole with a small or short radius groove adapting it to receive a smaller wire which can be clamped into the groove by the clamping screw.

The objectives of the invention are attained by extruding an elongated body-forming blank having an irregularly shaped wire-receiving hole and also extruding, on the bottom surface of the blank, a longitudinally projecting rib. The blank is sawed into body-forming lengths and a tang is slotted and secured to the rib simply by peening over the rib to secure the tang to the body.

It has been another objective of the invention, in providing a tang connector of the type described, to saw or otherwise remove a small end portion of the rib so that a completely enclosed slot in the tang can be mounted over the rib with one end of the tang lying flush with the end of the body. The removal of the end portion of the rib is preferably done by a stepped saw by which the blank is cut into body-forming lengths so that the sawing and rib removal are performed simultaneously.

These and other objectives of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view illustrating certain of the steps in forming the connector,

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the material removed from the rib of each connector body,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating the final step in forming the connector,

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the completely formed con nector,

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view, taken along the lines 5-5 of FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the lines 6-6 of FIG. 4, and

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view similar to FIG. 6 illustrating the connector receiving a small wire.

The connector includes a body 10 which is preferably aluminum and a tang II which is preferably copper. The body has an irregularly shaped hole 12 adapted to receive wires of varying sizes, the hole being in the extrusion direction which is indicated by the arrow 13. The hole 12 is as large as can be structurally accommodated by the body in order to receive a large wire and still withstand the pressure of the application of a clamping screw I4. At the bottom of the hole, however, there is a short or small radius groove [5 by which a smaller wire is centered in alignment with the axis of the clamping screw 14 so as to avoid its sliding to the side of the clamping screw when clamping pressure is applied.

The body 10 has a rib l6 extruded integrally with the body, the rib projecting away from a bottom surface 17 of the body. One end of the rib is spaced from the end surface of the body 10 as indicated at 18. The tang II has a hole 19 by which it is secured to a bus bar or the like and an elongated slot 20 by which it is secured to the body I0. Preferably, the elongated slot has one end 21 spaced from the end of the tang so that the slot 20 is completely enclosed by the material of the tang. The tang is applied to the body by passing the rib 16 through the slot 20 and thereafter peening the rib so that it spreads laterally as illustrated in FIG. 6 to provide a secure engagement with the tang.

The body of the lug is formed by a series of steps illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. In FIG. I, an extrusion die 30 is diagrammatically illustrated, and from the extrusion die an elongated blank 31 is formed by conventional extrusion practices. The elongated blank has the irregularly shaped hole 12 extending through the central portion of the blank and an elongated rib 32 as projecting from the bottom surface 33 of the blank.

The blankin the form of extruded bars is cut into individual body members by a saw diagrammatically illustrated at 34. Either during the process of cutting through the blank to form individual body members or thereafter, an end portion 35 of the rib is removed by a saw member diagrammatically illustrated at 36. Preferably, the element 36 is mounted coaxially with the saw 34 so that as the saw 34 moves through the blank to cut the individual body members, the end portion 35 of the rib will be removed during the final stages of the cut.

At some stage in the process, preferably prior to cutting the blank 31 into individual body members, a hole 37 is drilled and. tapped in the body member 10 to receive clamping screw 14. 4 The elongated slot 20 is preferably formed by a punching operation. In that operation, the tang is struck by a male punch and the metal is sheared for approximately half its thickness and then breaks, thereby forming a somewhat wedge-shaped configuration 41 as illustrated in FIG. 6. When the tang is applied to the body, the body is set on the surface which is struck by a peening tool 40 so that, after the rib 16 is peened, it flows to the wedge-shaped configuration 4I defined by the slot, as also illustrated in FIG. 6. Thus, the tang is securely mounted on the body.

As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the invention permits the formation of an extruded body having an irregularly shaped wire hole 12 which is adapted to receive a large wire 38 as shown in FIG. 6, or, alternatively, a small wire 39 as illustrated in FIG. 7, the small wire 39 being centered in the short radius groove 15, thereby adapting it to be clamped by the screw I4 without sliding to the side of the groove.

It can be seen from the foregoing description and drawings that the tang connector of the present invention has the desirable attributes of the extruded block having an irregularly shaped wire-receiving hole. At the same time, the block is adapted to be mounted on a tang by the simple expedient of assembling the tang to the body with the rib 16 projecting through the slot 30 and peening the rib to complete the attachment. Thus, the connector has the major functional requirements of the strength derived from the extrusion and the irregularly shaped wire hole while having the attribute of economy of manufacture through the use of the extrusion process and through the avoidance of having to connect the tang to the body by means of a bolt and lock washer.

It should be understood that while the invention has been described in connection with the securing of a body member to a tang, it is within the scope of the invention to secure body members directly to bus bars or to devices other than the tang shown herein. For example, an irregularly shaped bus bar could be slotted and the body member 10, having its rib formed as illustrated, could be secured to the bus bar with the rib inserted in the slot and peened or staked as described.

We claim:

1. An electrical connector lug comprising,

an extruded body having a wire-receiving hole extending in the extrusion direction,

an elongated rib projecting from the bottom of said body and extending longitudinally in the extrusion direction,

a tang mounted on the bottom of said body and having an elongated slot receiving said rib, said tang having a free end projecting from said body in the extrusion direction,

said rib being peened to secure said tang to the bottom of said body.

2. An electrical connector lug according to claim 1 in which said wire-receiving hole has an irregular configuration, being large to accommodate large wires and having a groove of smaller cross section than said wire hole in the lower surface thereof to accommodate small wires,

and a fastening screw threaded into said body and projecting into said hole in a direction perpendicular to said extrusion direction.

3. An electrical connector lug comprising,

an extruded body having a wire-receiving hole extending in the extrusion direction and having a bottom surface,

an elongated rib projecting form the bottom of said body and extending longitudinally in the extrusion direction, said rib having at least one end spaced from the edge of said bottom surface,

a tang mounted on the bottom surface of said body and having an elongated slot said slot terminating short of one end of said tang and receiving said rib with said one end of said rib adjacent said one end of said tang,

said tang projecting from said body in the extrusion direction and having a forward edge which is substantially flush with the forward face of the lug,

said rib being peened to secure said tang to said body.

4. An electrical connector lug according to claim 3 in which said tang slot is wedge-shaped and flares outwardly from said body, said rib having a mating wedge-shaped configuration. 

1. An electrical connector lug comprising, an extruded body having a wire-receiving hole extending in the extrusion direction, an elongated rib projecting from the bottom of said body and extending longitudinally in the extrusion direction, a tang mounted on the bottom of said body and having an elongated slot receiving said rib, said tang having a free end projecting from said body in the extrusion direction, said rib being peened to secure said tang to the bottom of said body.
 2. An electrical connector lug according to claim 1 in which said wire-receiving hole has an irregular configuration, being large to accommodate large wires and having a groove of smaller cross section than said wire hole in the lower surface thereof to accommodate small wires, and a fastening screw threaded into said body and projecting into said hole in a direction perpendicular to said extrusion direction.
 3. An electrical connector lug comprising, an extruded body having a wire-receiving hole extending in the extrusion direction and having a bottom surface, an elongated rib projecting from the bottom of said body and extending longitudinally in the extrusion direction, said rib having at least one end spaced from the edge of said bottom surface, a tang mounted on the bottom surface of said body and having an elongated slot, said slot terminating short of one end of said tang and receiving said rib with said one end of said rib adjacent said one end of said tang, said tang projecting from said body in the extrusion direction and having a forward edge which is substantially flush with the forward face of the lug, said rib being peened to secure said tang to said body.
 4. An electrical connector lug according to claim 3 in which said tang slot is wedge-shaped and flares outwardly from said body, said rib having a mating wedge-shaped configuration. 